Page:Paul Samuel Reinsch - Secret Diplomacy, How Far Can It Be Eliminated? - 1922.djvu/203



would come into the war, lay with the German Government. A system under which such tremen- dous issues have to be decided in such a manner, is absurd to the verge of insanity. *

* A German writer puts the blame for the outbreak of the war on the telegraph. He says that if there had been no tele- graphic communication between the capitals, the fatal crisis would not have arisen; there would have been time for reflection and a decision to make war would never have been taken in blood.

While the above arrangements, if they could be effectively carried out, would undoubtedly serve to moderate the evils which now result from the con- duct of international affairs on so narrow a basis, yet it is difficult to expect from them more than relatively superficial results. It is only if a new spirit can be developed among the nations, and if the absolutist conception of the state as far as it still remains, can be transformed into some- thing more consonant with the complexity and delicacy of human relationships, that we may hope to hail the dawn of a new era. It would be as great a transformation as that which separates the Pagan from the Christian ideal. Mankind is still somewhat blinded by the glitter and pa- geantry of the absolutist state; the pride of power manifests itself now particularly in foreign in- tercourse. When Portugal became a repu